Full width array mechanically tunable spectrophotometer

A method of full transverse scanning color analysis of color printed sheets moving in a color printer path with a full width array spectrophotometer, comprising:

• illuminating at least one substantially linear elongated array of illumination sources extending sufficiently in a substantially linear dimension to transversely substantially span said color printer path to illuminate with a transverse illumination source extending transversely across said color printed sheets moving in said color printer path,
• detecting reflected light from said illumination source with a full width array of tunable spectrophotometers being positioned to receive light reflected from said transverse illumination source fully across said print media sheet moving in said paper path;
• and,
• selectively filtering the reflected light with a full width array of tunable optical filters associated with photodetectors for generating a detected spectra from the printed sheets representative of a color thereof.

A method for generating a reflectance spectra from a selected set of sampled signals reflected from a material and transmitted through an optical filter comprising:

• sampling the selected set of signals relative to a corresponding input signal;
• using a characteristic processing matrix representative of filter operations;
• and,
• processing the processing matrix with sampled signals to determine processed output spectral frequencies comprising the reflectance spectra of the material.